Walden

I had three chairs in my house; one for solitude, two for friendship, three for society. When visitors came in larger and unexpected numbers there was but the third chair for them all

Why should they be­gin dig­ging their graves as soon as they are born?

I should not talk so much about my­self if there were any­body else whom I knew as well. Un­for­tu­nately, I am con­fined to this theme by the nar­row­ness of my ex­pe­ri­ence.

"To know that we know what we know, and that we do not know what we do not know, that is true knowledge."

Could a greater mir­a­cle take place than for us to look through each other’s eyes for an in­stant?

We might try our lives by a thou­sand sim­ple tests; as, for in­stance, that the same sun which ripens my beans il­lu­mines at once a sys­tem of earths like ours.

What­ever have been thy fail­ures hith­erto, “be not af­flicted, my child, for who shall as­sign to thee what thou hast left un­done?”

But man’s ca­pac­i­ties have never been mea­sured; nor are we to judge of what he can do by any prece­dents, so lit­tle has been tried.

Age is no bet­ter, hardly so well, qual­i­fied for an in­struc­tor as youth, for it has not prof­ited so much as it has lost.

As if you could kill time with­out in­jur­ing eter­nity.